Post by Bonobo on Jan 18, 2016 22:28:02 GMT 1

A march in defence of the Białowieża Forest took place in Warsaw over the weekend organised by the Green party.Marchers in Warsaw protest against the prospective felling of trees in the Białowieża Forest. Photo: PAP/Radek PietruszkaMarchers in Warsaw protest against the prospective felling of trees in the Białowieża Forest. Photo: PAP/Radek Pietruszka

The gathering was held in protest against the planned logging of some 400,000 diseased trees which have been attacked by the European spruce bark beetle.

It was a march of the Ents, as the organisers chose to call it, referring to the Ents Onodrim, Shepherds of the Trees from J.R.R. Tolkien 's ‘Lord of the Rings’.

The hundreds who gathered at the Łazienki Park in Warsaw protested that the oldest forest in Europe, and a national park in Poland, is threatened.

It is not the bark beetle which spells danger to this primeval forest, the protesters argued, but the activities of man. They chanted that the forest is not a business.- See more at: www.thenews.pl/1/6/Artykul/236986,Protesters-march-for-Polands-oldest-forest#sthash.19nEXn13.dpuf

Post by Bonobo on Mar 13, 2016 14:54:26 GMT 1

Protest in Krakow

Decision due on felling plan for Poland's primeval forest13.03.2016 13:43Minister of the Environment Jan Szyszko is due to take a decision on Sunday on a controversial plan to fell sections of the Białowieża Forest in eastern Poland.Demonstrators in Kraków protest against the proposed felling of parts of the Białowieza Forest, 12 March/ Photo: N.HodgeDemonstrators in Kraków protest against the proposed felling of parts of the Białowieza Forest, 12 March/

The State Forests National Forest Holding has argued that dead wood has led to an upsurge in pests such as the European spruce bark beetle, necessitating a major felling initiative.

However, environmentalists demonstrated in 11 cities across Poland on Saturday, arguing that the proposed felling is unnecessary, and that the forest's ecosystem should not be interfered with in this regard.Opponents to the felling include Greenpeace Poland, the Greenmind Foundation and the World Wildlife Fund.

Management plans for the forest had allowed for a restricted amount of logging between 2012 and 2021.

However, foresters have already cleared 57,000 cubic metres - 90 percent of what is permitted - prompting requests for an additional quota.

Over 300,000 cubic metres would be felled in the new initiative.- See more at: www.thenews.pl/1/9/Artykul/244479,Decision-due-on-felling-plan-for-Polands-primeval-forest#sthash.aQWk1g5Z.dpuf

Post by jeanne on Jun 25, 2017 23:30:16 GMT 1

If I were a Polish citizen, I would be there at those protests! Or actually, if I were a European in close vicinity I would be there, or any person for that matter who was close-by enough to be at the protest, I would be...the cutting of this forest affects all people of the world.

Post by Bonobo on Sept 16, 2017 7:58:48 GMT 1

EU court orders Poland to stop logging in Białowieża forest

Friday 28 July 2017 17.46 BST

The European Union’s top court has ordered Poland to immediately halt large-scale logging in an ancient protected forest, one of many cases that has pitted the nationalist, eurosceptic government in Warsaw against the bloc.The EU’s executive commission earlier this year sued Poland at the European court of justice (ECJ) over logging in the Białowieża forest, a Unesco World Heritage site.Straddling the border between Poland and Belarus, it is one of Europe’s last primeval forests and home to its largest herd of European bison as well as unique birds and insects.'My worst nightmares are coming true': last major primeval forest in Europe on 'brink of collapse'In an interim decision, the ECJ said the logging should stop immediately as it could cause “serious and irreversible damage” to the forest. The main case filed by the commission against Warsaw at the ECJ could take years to conclude.The commission has said the logging violates the bloc’s wildlife protection laws. Poland’s environment ministry, which declined to comment on the ECJ announcement, says it is needed to protect the forest from an invasion of beetles.The ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) has also tripled the quota of wood that can be harvested in Białowieża.Environmentalists say the vast majority of trees felled so far were not affected by the beetles. They have been holding regular protests to try to halt the logging and Unesco has also appealed to Poland stop cutting down the trees.“If Polish authorities do not respect the (ECJ) decision, it will be in serious conflict with EU law,” said Agata Szafraniuk, a lawyer at ClientEarth, an environmentalist group.Poland’s environment minister Jan Szyszko – who enjoys the backing of forester and hunting lobbies – was quoted as saying on Friday that more than one million trees must be cut down in Białowieża this year because of the beetle invasion.As well as stoking tensions with Brussels, the issue has deeply divided Poles – as have other moves by PiS, including its tightening of control over state media and the courts and its refusal to host any refugees who arrive in the EU.A local group of nationalist activists in Białowieża has called the environmentalists “green terrorists” and has vowed to confront them, prompting Krzysztof Cibor of Greenpeace to say: “The defenders in the Białowieża forest are vigilant, but we all hope that nothing bad will happen.”Environmentalists say Szyszko’s real motives are political and economic because increased logging brings more revenues to the local community, one of the poorest in Poland, helping to boost support for PiS.“Around half of the wood sold was from trees more than 100 years old,” said another green group, Wild Poland Foundation.Plans several years ago to extend the protected area of the forest ran into stiff local opposition.Szyszko is a powerful figure in the PiS government because of his close links to the ultra-Catholic broadcasting network of a politically influential priest, Father Tadeusz Rydzyk.PiS has built an increasingly close alliance with Rydzyk, who encourages his followers to back the party in return for financial grants for his various business projects.Poland still has several days to react to the ECJ interim decision. Should Poland lose the main case at the ECJ, it could be fined a lump sum of more than €4m and possible daily penalties of up to €300,000 for every day in which Warsaw fails to adhere to the court’s decision.www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jul/28/eu-court-orders-poland-to-stop-logging-in-bialowieza-forest

If I were a Polish citizen, I would be there at those protests! Or actually, if I were a European in close vicinity I would be there, or any person for that matter who was close-by enough to be at the protest, I would be...the cutting of this forest affects all people of the world.

Those PIS rulers don`t care. They are convinced they are the only ones who are right while all the rest are wrong. They believe God is on their side so they can do anything.

The defence of the forest continues as the destruction is going on despite the European Commission`s order to stop it. Green activists from all over the world come and protest. It is reported that forest guards are becoming more and more brutal while removing the protesters.

One day those guards will be prosecuted because the law issued by the EU says that the Forest mustn`t be cut down. They will probably try to prove they were carrying orders. But Germans who took part in Nazi crimes also explained they had carried out orders and they were sentenced anyway. So, dear forest guards, remember, your deeds might turn against you one day.

The lush, green canopy that is Bialowieza Forest spans 350,000 acres between Poland and Belarus. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site that is home to a variety of endangered species like the European bison, which is slightly larger and leaner than its American cousin.

It also has some of the last old-growth forest in Europe, untouched by human hands, and there is a great deal of international interest in preserving the forest's delicate ecology.

Polish journalist, author and naturalist Adam Wajrak said he never tires of seeing the complex life cycle in this forest up close.

"Look at there, here, you see?" he asked me, pointing to the top of a dead spruce trunk during a recent hike. "This is the little spruce growing on the body of dead spruce, this very often happens."He peeled back the top layer of another dead trunk.

"If you look under the bark, there's a lot of beetles, a lot of spiders — everything, whatever you want, and this is how it works," he says. "This is why I compare the Bialowieza Forest to coral reef — because in coral reef, a lot of life is based also on the dead corals. So this works like that."

But the Polish government insists Mother Nature has lost control of Bialowieza Forest. Poland's Minister of the Environment Jan Szyszko has repeatedly warned of a spreading bark beetle infestation targeting spruce trees in particular.

The camp outside Białowieża National Park where environmental activists are staying as they try to stop loggers. They've hung a sheet that says: "Bialowieza, Run Forest Run" playing on the popular Tom Hanks movie "Forrest Gump."

Szyszko says the forest must not be left to its own devices and that infected trees and those around them must be cut down. Last year, he approved a plan that triples the amount of logging in parts of the forest. It sparked an international outcry.

Foresters are planting less vulnerable oak saplings to replace the trees they are logging but that hasn't appeased critics, who complain the replanted woodlands look like man-made tree farms.

The Ministry of the Environment isn't budging on its claim that only human intervention can save this forest. It defends its plan on its official website, noting in big letters at the end: "We'll see who is right."

Mariusz Agiejczyk, the deputy chief in the Hajnowka district office overseeing state forests, firmly backs the ministry's plan. The General Directorate of the State Forests, a government agency, funds its activities from the $2 billion Polish logging industry.Agiejczyk blames the bark beetle proliferation in the Bialowieza Forest on global warming and previous reductions of logging quotas there.

"The [Polish] foresters are here since 90 — almost 100 — years, and look how beautiful the forest is," he says. "This kind of criticism that says we are harming it is absurd, we did not do anything wrong."

The European Union's highest court is siding for now with the Polish government's opponents, who argue the beetle infestation must be left to nature. The European Commission — which is the EU's executive arm and is leading the legal action in the Court of Justice case — argues the Polish logging violates the bloc's wildlife protection laws.

On July 28, the court imposed a temporary injunction against logging in Bialowieza Forest to protect the trees while the case is being decided. But Szyszko said on July 31 that Poland won't abide by it, and that logging – which he referred to as "protective measures" for the forest – would continue.

Should Poland lose the case before the European Court of Justice, it could face fines of more than $4.7 million, plus possible penalties of around $350,000 each day.

Meanwhile, environmental activists are not waiting for officials. They've descended on Bialowieza Forest from around Europe in recent weeks to try and block the loggers.

Joanna Bienkowska, 30, of Greenpeace, is one of the activists who recently moved into a camp near the forest with other protesters. They've hung up a sheet that says "Bialowieza: Run, Forest, Run," playing on a line from Forrest Gump.

Bienkowska said she and the other activists spend their days hiking, biking and driving around the forest with maps, binoculars and GPS devices in search of the mechanical harvesters that cut down as many as 200 trees each day."We don't know where are harvesters, so we are looking for them," she says. "[They] are moving so fast with guards, so sometimes we don't know where they are."

Fellow activist Marcin Skopiński, a university student in cultural and social anthropology from Warsaw, says he recently helped form a human blockade that chained itself to a forest harvester.Deputy superintendent of the Hajnowka Forest District cuts of bark of spruce to find woodworm and woodworm larvas in Białowieża National Park.

"During patrols, I've see a lot of places where logging [is] taking place and it's a very sad thing to see," says Skopinski, 25. "Like some of the parts are looking like a storm came in or some huge destruction happened."

The activists say it's increasingly difficult to get to the harvesters because of the armed foresters, scores of whom are being sent here from around Poland to protect the logging operations.

But what they show me is the aftermath of the logging. Felled trees stripped of their bark and bearing the harvester's signature gouges are piled high along roads and trails, where trucks will haul them away.

Nearby, dozens of other trees are marked with fluorescent pink dots. They will be cut down next.

Post by uncltim on Oct 22, 2017 19:20:37 GMT 1

Are they protesting the harvesting of diseased trees? Goodness sake. This is why you don't let urban emotional children make important decisions. Mature forests offer very little in the way of carbon capture or wildlife vibrancy. I am of course an opponent of clear-cutting, but select-cutting really does amazing things for a woodland and is infinitely sustainable. Such nonsense.

Post by Bonobo on Oct 22, 2017 20:58:16 GMT 1

Are they protesting the harvesting of diseased trees? Goodness sake. This is why you don't let urban emotional children make important decisions. Mature forests offer very little in the way of carbon capture or wildlife vibrancy. I am of course an opponent of clear-cutting, but select-cutting really does amazing things for a woodland and is infinitely sustainable. Such nonsense.

Opinions are mixed. Some claim that diseased trees must be cut down and removed to avoid the beetle proliferation.Others say that forests are able to cope with pests on their own, just like they have been doing for millions of years and don`t need humans for that.

However, there is still another issue at stake. It is widely suspected that they also fell healthy trees.

A quote from one article above: Environmentalists say the vast majority of trees felled so far were not affected by the beetles. They have been holding regular protests to try to halt the logging and Unesco has also appealed to Poland stop cutting down the trees.Poland’s environment minister Jan Szyszko – who enjoys the backing of forester and hunting lobbies – was quoted as saying on Friday that more than one million trees must be cut down in Białowieża this year because of the beetle invasion.

Post by Bonobo on Nov 18, 2017 18:44:13 GMT 1

State Forests HQ blocked in protest against logging of ancient woodland09.11.2017 18:52Twenty-two people have been detained by police after environmental activists blocked Poland's State Forests headquarters in Warsaw on Thursday in protest against ongoing logging in the primeval Białowieża Forest in Poland's northeast.Protesters outside State Forests' headquarters. Photo: PAP/Leszek Szymański.Protesters outside State Forests' headquarters. Photo: PAP/Leszek Szymański.

In the evening police removed and wrote up the activists who at 9 am chained themselves to the building and to a concrete-filled barrel which they used to block the main door.

The protesters claimed State Forests loggers were breaking the law and violating a European Court of Justice decision.

The top European Union court in July issued a preliminary ban on logging in the forest, which is covered by the bloc's directives on birds and habitats.

But Malinowska said the court was yet to hand down a final decision, adding that a trial would start on 12 December.

Poland's environment ministry and State Forests claim logging is necessary to ensure safety in the forest and to eliminate a plague of the spruce bark beetle which feeds on trees in Białowieża. (vb)

Post by Bonobo on Nov 22, 2017 21:56:01 GMT 1

One day, in free Poland, an investigation will be launched to track down the dirty machinations of business and politics behind cutting down Białowieża Forest. Remember my words.

Poland faces fines of EUR 100,000 a day for logging in Białowieża21.11.2017 08:30Poland may face fines of EUR 100,000 (PLN 423,000) a day if it fails to comply with a ban on logging in the primaeval Białowieża forest, a European Union top court has said.The European Court of Justice reiterated its July decision that Poland must stop logging immediately, pending its final decision on the European Commission's accusations that cutting down trees in the forest violates birds and habitats protection rules.The Luxembourg-based court also gave Warsaw 15 days to notify Brussels about how it planned on complying with the decision.Warsaw claimed that logging was necessary to ensure safety in the UNESCO World Heritage-listed forest in Poland's northeast, which is home to the European bison and a number of bird species.According to Polish Environment Minister Jan Szyszko, a plague of the spruce bark beetle has compromised trees, which pose a threat to mushroom pickers and others who enter the forest.Szyszko has also said that European Union allowances for logging in certain parts of the forest, such as near roads, was insufficient in Poland where state forests were open to the public.But the European court said the immediate ban was necessary because logging could cause significant and irreversible damage to the ancient forest even before Brussels' case against Poland is final.The court added that logging would be allowed only when other alternatives, such as temporary bans on entering parts of the forest, were not viable.The court gave Poland 15 days to prove to Brussels that it was complying with the decision.If the European Commission feels otherwise, it will be able to take the matter back to the court, which can choose to impose fines of at least EUR 100,000 for every day of logging.The European Commission's concerns over logging in the Polish forest have been voiced amid a larger, ongoing dispute between the bloc and Warsaw over the respect of the rule of law.The European Parliament recently warned Poland that it could have its right to vote in the Council of the European Union suspended.As well as urging Poland to stop large-scale logging in the Białowieża forest, the parliament asked Poland to not proceed with new laws unless they fully guaranteed the independence of the courts, to respect the right of freedom of assembly, to condemn what it described as the recent “xenophobic and fascist” November 11 Independence Day march in Warsaw, and to provide free and accessible contraception and the so-called morning-after pill available over the counter. (vb

Post by uncltim on Nov 23, 2017 6:28:16 GMT 1

I considered Poland as a sovereign nation, I was mistaken.

"Poland may face fines of EUR 100,000 (PLN 423,000) a day if it fails to comply with a ban on logging in the primeval Białowieża forest, a European Union top court has said."Apparently Brussels owns the forest. How else could their law supersede Poland's?

"The European Commission's concerns over logging in the Polish forest have been voiced amid a larger, ongoing dispute between the bloc and Warsaw over the respect of the rule of law."Are they breaking Polish law?

"“xenophobic and fascist” November 11 Independence Day march in Warsaw, and to provide free and accessible contraception and the so-called morning-after pill available over the counter.""Straight Jaffe memo and Kalergi plan implementation.

What is the wood being used for? Where is it going? Who are they competing with in the market?

Post by Bonobo on Nov 23, 2017 23:03:39 GMT 1

Apparently Brussels owns the forest. How else could their law supersede Poland's?

Are they breaking Polish law?

What is the wood being used for? Where is it going? Who are they competing with in the market?

Sovereign nation, yes. But not the state. Poland functions within the EU.

Brussels doesn`t own it, but they treat it as common European heritage which is worth protecting.

Polish authorities break the Polish law because cutting down trees in protected areas is only allowed for sanitary reasons. Yes, they claim they prevent the proliferation of bark beetle in this way but it has been proved that also healthy trees have been felled.

The wood is either sold to Polish industries or exported. Thanks to previous encouragements, industry based on wood has been developing rapidly for a few years. Now they demand more and more wood.